A well known method of cutting out pieces from a flexible sheet material consists in bringing the sheet material onto a table in a cutting-out zone, either as a single ply or as a plurality of superposed plies forming a lay-up, and in cutting out pieces in compliance with a pre-established layout by means of a tool which penetrates into the material or laser cuts the material while the sheet material is held against the table by suction. The suction is obtained by sucking through the surface of the table. It has been known for a long time to use a laser as cutting tool more particularly for materials in sheet form. To that end, a laser source is available, generating a light beam, which is directed by means of mirrors towards the zone of cut. Before it reaches the plane of cut, there is interposed on its path a focusing lens whose role is to concentrate the light beam into a spot of very small diameter, which furnishes a very high density of energy. Very different materials may thus be cut out provided that the thicknesses are not too great.
In many systems, the fabric to be cut is pulled onto the laser cutting table with wrinkles. This causes off quality pieces and inaccurate cuts. In the case of air bags, these miss-cuts cause lost time, money, and a safety risk.
Therefore, there is a need for a process and an apparatus to automatically laser cut a textile web with reduced wrinkling and more accurate cutting.